Virus for Word

[Amy]

Been using Office X since 2003. Never had problem with Word for normal
use like letters, etc. However, since last month, whenever I attached
a word doc in gmail, gmail says the attachment has virus, need to be
removed, or else the email will not go out. When I used Apple Mail to
send the doc out, the receive only get gabbage file. Called Microsoft
for the very first time today, they reitred Office X. I have
reinstalled. Does anyone has insight to this?
Amy

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Amy:

What does your anti-virus program say? Have you set it to run a full scan
of your system? What did it find?

I think the evidence is fairly clear: you DO have a virus on your computer.
You should run an antivirus program to remove it. Re-installing Word won't
fix it, because the virus is not in the Word application code, it's in yur
documents.

Cheers

--

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs

+61 4 1209 1410, <mailto:[email protected]> mailto:[email protected]

 

[TexasBob]

Been using Office X since 2003. Never had problem with Word for normal
use like letters, etc. However, since last month, whenever I attached
a word doc in gmail, gmail says the attachment has virus, need to be
removed, or else the email will not go out. When I used Apple Mail to
send the doc out, the receive only get gabbage file. Called Microsoft
for the very first time today, they reitred Office X. I have
reinstalled. Does anyone has insight to this?
Amy

First, you do NOT need commercial virus protection to solve this
problem. To solve it, do this:

1. In Office X, open your Preferences.

2. Select General.

3. Enable the check box for Macro Virus Protection.

Now, when you open a Word document containing macros, Word will ask if
you want to delete the macros. Just say yes. There is no good reason
for a Word document to contain macros, and the practice should be
stopped.

The root of the problem is Microsoft allowing Word documents to
contain executable code, called macros. While once considered to be a
nice feature, its time has past. Putting macros in a document template
has some validity, but should be used with caution. This is one of the
main reasons I use Word only when forced too for business reasons,
which, fortunately, is becoming less and less. I do all serious
writing in TeX---http://www.tug.org/mactex/---but there are other
reasons, as well. TeX has good facilities for creating Word documents
so I do almost all of my original writing there, even for documents
destined for distribution in Word.

Let me know if this works for you. There are a couple of other things
you may need to do, but, hopefully, not.

 

[TexasBob]

Been using Office X since 2003. Never had problem with Word for normal
use like letters, etc. However, since last month, whenever I attached
a word doc in gmail, gmail says the attachment has virus, need to be
removed, or else the email will not go out. When I used Apple Mail to
send the doc out, the receive only get gabbage file. Called Microsoft
for the very first time today, they reitred Office X. I have
reinstalled. Does anyone has insight to this?
Amy

First, you do NOT need commercial virus protection to solve this
problem. To solve it, do this:
1. In Office X, open your Preferences.

2. Select General.

3. Enable the check box for Macro Virus Protection.

Now, when you open a Word document containing macros, Word will ask
if
you want to delete the macros. Just say yes. There is no good reason
for a Word document to contain macros, and the practice should be
stopped.

Let me know if this works for you. There are a couple of other things
you may need to do, but, hopefully, not.

<RANT>The root of the problem is Microsoft allowing Word documents to
contain executable code, called macros. While once considered to be a
nice feature, its time has past. Putting macros in a document
template
has some validity, but should be used with caution. This is one of
the
main reasons I use Word only when forced too for business reasons,
which, fortunately, is becoming less and less. I do all serious
writing in TeX:

http://www.tug.org/mactex

but there are other reasons, as well. TeX has good facilities for
creating Word documents
so I do almost all of my original writing there, even for documents
destined for distribution in Word. </RANT>

 

[Elliott Roper]

<RANT>The root of the problem is Microsoft allowing Word documents to
contain executable code, called macros. While once considered to be a
nice feature, its time has past. Putting macros in a document
template has some validity, but should be used with caution. This is
one of the main reasons I use Word only when forced too for business
reasons, which, fortunately, is becoming less and less. I do all
serious writing in TeX:

http://www.tug.org/mactex

but there are other reasons, as well. TeX has good facilities for
creating Word documents so I do almost all of my original writing
there, even for documents destined for distribution in Word. </RANT>

Way to go Bob! Putting the TeX in Texas. ;-)

 

[John McGhie [MVP Word, Word Mac]]

Hi Bob:

I sense some problems with this scenario:

1) The Macro Virus protection in Word is really too silly to rely on. It
won't find the majority of real viruses out there ...

2) What it *will* do is barf any time you open ANY document that has an
attached template containing macros. Which means you are more likely to rip
the valuable macros out of your Normal template than to protect anyone from
real viruses.

3) With modern viruses, the virus won't be in the document until you try to
send it somewhere. The malware is inserted during the packaging for email
transmission.

4) The actual virus is likely to be in a loadable module, not in the
document or its template. The virus engine will infect various files on a
case-by-case basis.

You don;t need to pay lots of money for antivirus protection: I run ClamX
AV on the Mac -- it's free, and seems to be adequate for the minimal attack
surface a modern Mac presents (I use something way more paranoid on the
PC!!).

Users in this forum have generally considered a wide variety of alternatives
before choosing Microsoft Word. It's expensive: users with simple needs are
unlikely to be running it. Users running Microsoft Word are unlikely to be
able to fulfill their need with any of the alternatives. So I am not sure
that suggesting TeX is a way forward for this user

Cheers

--

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]